News Investigators/ The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, says a team of specialists has recovered the Black box of Helicopter SK76 registration 5N-BQG that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near Bonny Finima on Oct. 24.
The minister, who disclosed this at a news conference in Abuja on Wednesday, said it took the specialists 14 days to locate and recover the Black box and some other parts of the aircraft.
“As you may recall, the ill-fated helicopter crashed about 1.4km from its destination on the NNPC`s Floating Production Storage Offloading vessel (FPSO)(Nuim Antan). The area of the crash was identified.
“Immediately, the Nigerian Air Force conveyed a NSIB Go-Team to Port Harcourt, from where the Go-Team was transported to the Nuim Antan vessel on a Nigerian Navy Agusta Westland (AW109) helicopter on the same day of the accident.
“Meanwhile, the search and rescue was activated, and a team comprising teams from the NNPC, Nigerian Navy, NSIB, Hydro Dive, NIMASA and the ships sailing around the vicinity of the accident site, “ he said.
According to him, underwater recovery of victims and wreckage is a significant project that requires careful planning and provision of technology, expertise, and substantial financial resources to support the operation.
The minister said over 60 personnel were mobilised to the site including professional divers and other technical experts.
“We deployed marine vessels and diver boats equipped with sophisticated state-of-the art gadgets for scanning the sea bed and tracking. The depth of the sea around the vicinity of the accident site varied from 40 to 1000 meters.
“The search and rescue operation was interrupted several times by heavy rains, oceanic currents and strong winds.
“ It is imperative to mention that the search and recovery operations continued unabated day and night on a 24 by 7 basis for 14 days,“ he said.
Mr Keyamo stated that three bodies of some debris suspected to be from the crashed helicopter were spotted floating and were picked up on the first day.
He added that so far, five bodies identified to be of the deceased passengers were recovered, while one passenger and two crew members were yet to be found.
“At midnight on Oct. 31, the wreckage of the helicopter was finally located at a depth of 42m, Latitude 04 13.634`N and Longitude 008 19.442`E.
“Although scattered in pieces, major parts and components of the helicopter, except for the flight recovery (Black box), were recovered including the fuselage, two engines, main gearbox, land gears, main and tail rotor, tail rotor shaft among others.
“ The search and recovery efforts continued until the flight recorder was found on Friday Nov. 8. The search and recovery operation took over 14 days, “ he said.
According to him, the specialists have brought the flight recorder to Abuja for the Nigeria Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) to commence readout of the recordings immediately .
The minister said that the preliminary report would be published on the NSIB website within 30 days while the final report and possible safety recommendations might take a year.
“Our objective is to conduct a thorough investigation using available techniques to find a safety issue and recommend a safety change to prevent a tragedy like this from happening again.
`We will examine the roles of man, machine and the environment that might have directly or indirectly contributed to this accident.
“In this process, we will review the certified maintenance documents of the crashed helicopter and the crew`s training and medical records. We have received full cooperation from the cooperators, NCAA, NAMA and NiMet, “ he said.
According to him, the helicopter engines and related components will be thoroughly examined at the NSIB hanger in Abuja after being subjected to a team down exercise.
NAN
